Fulsome poised for perfect trip in Governor's Stakes

Fulsome was able to overcome a slow pace and win a high-end Churchill Downs allowance race on June 25, his most recent start. Saturday, in the Grade 3, $200,000 West Virginia Governor’s Stakes, he shouldn’t have to.

Ten were entered in the Governor’s, a 1 1/16-mile dirt race for 3-year-olds and up, and six of them have TimeformUS early pace numbers of 100 or greater. Irish Unity, Likeable, and So Dialed In all have early pace numbers over 110, and Fulsome, unlike in his last two starts, should get a good run from a stalking or closing spot.

No more than nine will start in the Governor’s, the penultimate stakes on the Saturday card at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort, with the $500,000 West Virginia Derby coming right afterward. Mr. Wireless, last year’s West Virginia Derby winner, is among the Governor’s entrants but will be scratched in favor of a start at his home track, Churchill, trainer Bret Calhoun said Wednesday. So Dialed In was cross-entered in an Aug. 4 allowance race at Thistledown.

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Only one horse changed his running position much in the fifth race June 25 at Churchill, a $148,000 allowance race, and that was Fulsome. Last early behind a pokey pace, Fulsome tried to move into a better position running down the backstretch but was hemmed in by a rival to his outside. His jockey knifed Fulsome through a gap at the three-furlong marker, and Fulsome sprinted home along with pace-pressing Twilight Blue, whom he beat by a nose in an exciting finish.

“The horse overcame some things to win that,” said trainer Brad Cox. “He had to dig in.”

Fulsome was a flashy last-to-first winner of the Oaklawn Mile in April, his first start of 2022, but the 4-year-old Juddmonte Farms homebred took a step back, albeit facing stronger competition, finishing sixth a month later in the Alysheba.

“Second race back from a layoff and he didn’t run up to par,” Cox said.

Five-year-old Silver Prospector on his day is Fulsome’s equal – the problem is predicting when that day will come. His win in the Steve Sexton Mile and second to Olympiad in the Mineshaft at Fair Grounds were good enough to win Saturday, but Silver Prospector’s other four efforts this year probably were not.

Promise Keeper, from the Todd Pletcher barn, also was defeated by Olympiad during the Fair Grounds meet, finishing a well-beaten third March 26 in the New Orleans Classic. He’s got a shot, if he can avoid getting hooked into a hot pace, while Mike Maker sends out Endorsed, who carries a 20-race losing streak into this start.

Cox has three more on undercard

Two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox was asked to set an over-under line on the number of races he’d win Saturday at Mountaineer, where he has horses entered in five stakes.

“I don’t know, the way things have been going since Cyberknife won,” Cox said. “They haven’t been winning.”

Since Cyberknife captured the July 23 Haskell Stakes, Cox-trained runners have lost 16 races, the longest string losing streak since the stable lost 23 in a row last September.

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Cox runs Home Brew in the West Virginia Derby and Fulsome in the Governor’s Stakes and has three other horses for five more $75,000 stakes on the card.

In race 2, the House of Delegates Speaker’s Cup over one mile 70 yards on turf, Price Talk will be a bit of a price. In Love, a Grade 1 winning turf-miler last year who drops from the Grade 1 Manhattan and the Grade 1 Maker’s Mark Mile, will be a formidable favorite despite breaking from post 10.

In race 3, the Secretary of State for fillies and mares over six furlongs on dirt, Cox has Kaely’s Sister, a plausible winner but far from a standout. Meanwhile, Command Strike, trained by James Jackson, has won three of her four Mountaineer starts, her only local defeat a second to the useful Club Car in the 2021 renewal of this race.

Cox has nothing for race 4, the West Virginia Legislature Chairman’s Cup over a short 4 1/2 furlongs. Hollis is the even-money morning-line favorite here, but Kevin Patterson runs Storm Boarder, 4 for 4 at Mountaineer and 9-1-1 from 12 starts at this abbreviated trip. Patterson has won with 5 of 12 starters (42 percent) at the Mountaineer meet and 27 of 80 (34 percent) overall this year.

The Cox-trained Adventuring is the 6-5 favorite on the line for the Senate President’s Cup, for fillies and mares at one mile and 70 yards on grass, despite the fact she hasn’t even raced since December. Lashara has a recency edge on Adventuring; Vezpa is a price play.

It’s another Eclipse-winning trainer, Steve Asmussen, with the most likely winner of race 6, the Senator Robert C. Byrd Memorial, for 3-year-olds and up at six furlongs on dirt. Asmussen runs the improved Macron, who got a 100 Beyer Speed Figure last month winning the Iowa Sprint. Special Reserve, the 2021 Iowa Sprint winner, ran poorly last month in the De Francis Memorial, his only race of 2022.